Course Descriptions
100 Writer’s Seminar This course is for students who wish to improve their ability to express their own ideas, positions, and interpretations. It emphasizes developing the writer’s “voice” because much of what one is asked to write in college requires the writer to express his or her own ideas in a convincing, credible manner. The course considers what it means to be a writer—what habits of mind and work lead to an effective essay—and stresses focus, cohesion, and organization. Course times and themes vary with instructor. (Repeatable) (Offered each semester)
200 Grammar and Style Understanding grammar is important for writers because grammatical choices affect style; stylistic choices have grammatical implications. Yet grammar is often given last place in writing classes or made a mere matter of mechanics—correcting a comma splice, changing a relative pronoun. This course is designed for all writers and would‑be writers who want to understand the rhetorical power of grammar. It is designed for anyone who wants to understand what stylistic choices writers have available. It is not, therefore, a course in grammar or a course in style, but a course on the relationship between them. Students improve their grammar through working on style; they improve their style by working on grammar, sentence diagramming, weekly grammatical excursions, required weekly quizzes, and a final project (Forbes, offered annually)
Typical readings: Kolln, Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical Effects; Kolln and Funk, Understanding English Grammar; Wislawa Szymborka; and Annie Proulx
220 Breadwinners and Losers: The Rhetoric of Work How do we talk about work in our society? How do we decide what work to do? How does work affect identity and what life means? Is work valuable in and of itself, or is work only a means to an end? What are the rhetorical requirements of various workplaces? What issues of gender, class, and equity are raised by workplace rhetoric? This course seeks to address these and other questions about a fundamental aspect of every person’s life. It explores the issue of work in school and after school through readings and discussions. Topics vary. (Repeatable) (Forbes, offered alternate years)
Typical readings: Hall, Life Work; Wilson, When Work Disappears; Millhauser, Martin Dressler; Snyder, The Cliff Walk; Levine, What Work Is.
221 He Says, She Says: Language and Gender Relations Awareness of gender difference often constitutes a significant barrier both to effective self‑expression and interpersonal communication, becoming for both men and women a source of either self‑censorship or an (often unconscious) silencing of others. Is there a value to having a sense of otherness based upon one’s gender roles? Are there ways to bridge the gender gap in order to communicate effectively and without diminishing one’s sense of self? If one takes the problem as an opportunity for serious study, one is confronted with fundamental questions about how language links individual identity with socially defined gender roles. Students encounter the potential for discovering new opportunities for personal expression and communication with others. (Offered annually)
224 Writing and the Culture of Reading Academic, intellectual culture is a culture of the word, of reading and writing, of print. This course explores the dynamics of this culture through a close interrogation of the writing and reading practices of intellectuals, ourselves included. Through the course of the semester students keep a reading journal, write several critical essays, and complete a final project. (Forbes, offered alternate years)
Typical readings: Rose, The Year of Reading Proust; Manguel, A History of Reading; Denby, Great Books; Montaigne, selected essays; Carroll, Alice in Wonderland; Scholes, Protocols of Reading
250 Talk and Text: An Introduction to Discourse Analysis This course investigates one of the fundamental theoretical ways language is studied today. Students study the theories of discourse analysis and practice those theories by analyzing spoken and written texts. Analysis of the various kinds of texts in our culture—from billboards to novels, from political speeches and academic lectures to radio and TV talk shows—leads into discussions of conversational style, gender, linguistic stereotypes, and problems in intracultural communication. (Offered alternate years)
Typical readings: Brown/Yule, Discourse Analysis; Tannen, ed., Analyzing Discourse: Text and Talk; Tannen, Talking Voices: Repetition, Dialogue, and Imagery in Conversational Discourse
251 Black Talk, White Talk What is BEV or Ebonics? Is it a language or a dialect? This course studies Black English Vernacular, also called Ebonics or Black street speech or Black talk (depending on the linguist): its sounds, structure, semantics, and history. It investigates the differences between black and white spoken discourse styles, which lead to tension and misunderstanding. It looks at written texts for the ways in which they reveal particular styles of spoken discourse. And it investigates the educational public policy issues surrounding Black English Vernacular. (Forbes, offered alternate years)
Typical readings: Smitherman, Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black America; Baugh, Black Street Speech: Its History, Structure, and Survival; Smitherman, Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner; Holloway, Africanisms in American Culture; Wiley, Why Black People Tend to Shout
252 An Anatomy of American Class: Realities, Myths, Rhetorics Visit any American high school and find most students dressed in trendy sneakers and jeans, a good representation of the hidden discourse of class since these same students originate from different social and economic backgrounds. This course interrogates American class—how is it defined, who gets to define it, how is it represented in written and spoken discourse, and what are its costs and hidden injuries? How does class shape and predict? What is the connection between race, ethnicity, and class? What is the language of class? Students will think, read, and write analytically about their own experiences as well as develop critical interpretations about the cultural discourse of class. (Salibrici, offered annually)
Typical readings: Terkel, Division Street America; Rubin, Worlds of Pain; Fussell, A Guide Through the American Status System; Burke, The Conundrum of Class; Weis, Working Class Without Work; Zandy (ed.), Liberating Memory: Our Work and Working Class Consciousness; and literary works by Sinclair Lewis, Tillie Olsen, Alice Walker, and Gloria Anzaldua.
300 Writers World of Discourse: Issues and Practice of American Journalism This course introduces print journalism. It focuses on the basics of reporting and feature writing (business, sports, local government, and the law). Participants should expect to produce several pages of accurate, detailed, and well‑written copy a week and be prepared for extensive and numerous revisions. Students also work on typography and layout. As the major project for the term, students in teams write, edit, design, and typeset a newspaper. There is a fee for this course. (Repeatable) (Forbes, offered alternate years)
Texts: A subscription to The New York Times; Harrower, The Newspaper Designer’s Handbook; and The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual.
301 Writers World of Discourse: The Discourses of Rape in Contemporary Culture An examination of the many ways our culture talks about rape, from political rape to date rape; the changing definitions of rape; rape as metaphor; and the social, political, and ethical implications of such discourses. How does the news media cover rape? How does the entertainment industry portray rape? Issues of power and powerlessness, victims and victimization, and privacy and the public good emerge. (Forbes, offered alternate years)
Typical readings: Brownmiller, Against Our Will; Roiphe, The Morning After: Sex, Fear and Feminism on Campus; Raini, After Silence; short stories by Atwood; novels by Morrison and Irving; Thornhill and Palmer, A Natural History of Rape.
302 Op‑Ed: Writing Political and Cultural Commentary ‘’Op‑ed”—or—‘’opposite the editorial”—means, literally, the opinion columns that appear in newspapers on the page next to the editorial and letters‑to‑the‑editor page. In a broader sense, ‘’op‑ed” refers to critical essays that analyze significant political, social, economic, or cultural events or developments. This course is intended for all students who want to improve their ability to express their views effectively, especially for those with a sense of vocation in social activism, politics, or journalism. It is intended to help students hone their abilities to express their ideas in ways that will persuade others to embrace them. Beyond that, it is intended to raise relevant ethical questions about authenticity, conviction, and elitism. (Offered alternate years)
304 Hidden Writing: Journals, Diaries, and Notebooks as Creative Discourse Creative ideas for writers often begin with jottings that remain out of sight when final artistic creations are unveiled. Journals, diaries, and notebooks are usually private but normally pivotal to the creative process. This course explores the connection between private and public texts and the value of private writing as a creative activity. How does the language of privacy prefigure or help shape public creations? Can private writing be considered an art form? Students will investiage such questions while examining private writings of published authors. They will also engage in their own hidden writing, making connections between their experiences, authors studied, and the discourse of hidden writing. (Salibrici, offered annually)
Typical readings: Dresher and Munoz (eds.), Darkness and Light: Private Writing as an Art: An Anthology of Contemporary Journals, Diaries, and Notebooks; Johnson, The Hidden Writer: Diaries and the Creative Life; Ghiselin (ed.), The Creative Process; and hidden writings of such authors as Franz Kafka, Virginia Woolf, Anais Nin, and Sylvia Plath.
305 Writing Colleagues Seminar: The Teaching of Writing and Reading This intensive course is designed for students who would like to work in the Writing Colleagues Program, or study the current theories of the teaching of writing and reading at the college level. Students investigate the theories of writing as a process and the ways that reading is a critical and interdependent part of that process; engage in frequent critical reading, writing, and discussion; and, under the supervision of the instructor, work with at least one student during a five‑week practicum to help her or him improve critical reading and writing abilities. In addition, students solidify and hone their grammatical skills. Prerequisites: Must be completing sophomore year though exceptional first‑years are accepted; submission of portfolio; interview; and faculty recommendation. (Forbes, Salibrici, offered each semester)
Typical readings: Batholomae and Petrosky eds., Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers; Vacca and Vacca, Content Area Reading; Straub and Lunsford, eds., 12 Readers Reading:Responding to College Student Writing.
306 Chemistry Colleagues Seminar This intensive course is designed for students who would like to work in the science version of the Writing Colleagues Program or those interested or need courses in scientific discourse. Students investigate the distinguishing linguistic characteristics of a variety of scientific genres, from the lab report and professional academic journal article to academic conference presentations and the general science article; write multiple drafts of each genre investigated; engage in weekly workshops on those drafts; and read several science writers. In addition, students hone and solidify their grammatical skills. Prerequisites: Submission of a portfolio; faculty recommendation; interview; and course work in at least one lab science. (Forbes, Spring, offered annually)
Typical readings: Primo Levi, Roald Hoffman, David Quammen, Ann Penrose, and Steven Katz.
312 Power and Persuasion: Readings in Rhetoric, Ancient to Modern In this course, students read and respond to texts of rhetorical theory, practice the art of detailed rhetorical analysis, and apply rhetorical theory to their own persuasive texts. They also focus on political rhetoric as exemplified in representative great 20th – century speeches. Students study and give traditional kinds of speeches, including deliberative, judicial, and ceremonial. (Salibrici, offered annually).
Typical readings: selections from Plato’s Phaedrus; Aristotle’s Art of Rhetoric; Cicero, De Oratore; Augustine, On Christian Doctrine; Virginia Woolf, Monique Wittig, Cornel West, and speeches by Franklin Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Geraldine Ferraro, among others.
322 Adolescent Literature This course, run as a workshop and compliment to EDUC 320Children’s Literature, considers contemporary works that represent the main forms of literature for early and late adolescence: science fiction, fantasy, realistic and “problems” novels, and historical novels. Students write young‑adult fiction, as well as read and discuss young‑adult novels—their rhetoric, style, and issues. Participants form reading partnerships with local middle and high school students to discuss the books they are reading and the stories they are writing. There is a lab with this course. (Forbes, Salibrici, offered alternate years)
Typical readings: Voigt, Paterson, Hamilton, Kerr, L’Engle, Singer, Alexander, Tolkien, LeGuin, Fox, O’Dell, Konigsburg, Aiken, Avi, among others.
351 Writing in the Natural and Social Sciences This course is designed for students interested in writing about science, particularly environmental science. Students write weekly articles or essays, read and discuss articles by major science writers, and read and discuss each other’s articles in a workshop. (Offered alternate years)
Typical readings: Gould, McPhee, Angier, Hubbell, Heath, Sacks, Thomas; a subscription to the New York Times is required
352 Writing in the Professional Workplace Preparing students for the principles and practices of professional writing in nonacademic settings is the focus of this course. It explores the way rhetoric functions in professional cultures and, more broadly, within a high-tech “information society.” Issues of gender relations and multiculturalism in the workplace will also be addressed. Students investigate, read, and write about professional writing, as well as practice its numerous forms, including (but not limited to) job application materials, letters and memos, reports and proposals, oral presentations, and electronic communications.
Typical readings: Bell’s Tools for Technical and Professional Communication, Boyett/Conn’s Workplace 2000, Jackall’s Moral Mazes, The World of Corporate Managers, and chapters from Barnum/Carliner’s Techniques for Technical Communication.
360 Writing Colleagues Field Placement
420 The Writer’s Guild The goal of the course is to write a collection of essays. This capstone workshop for Writing and Rhetoric majors or serious writers meets once a week in extended session during which students read and critique each other’s work. Students should be prepared to write an essay a week, with extensive revisions, read professional examples on the theme for the semester, which varies from year to year, submit an essay for publication, and give a public reading as the final examination. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor based on a writing sample. (Repeatable) (Forbes, Salibrici, offered alternate years)
450 Independent Study
495 Honors